Thursday, January 29, 2015

On a recent trip to the dollar store, I picked up a cute tinsel Valentine's wreath. It looked nice decorating our front door. But today, it just looked so plain. So I set out to spruce it up a bit. I used scraps of stuff that I found tucked away in my craft corner. And I mean scraps. I had barely enough lace, not enough ribbon, and had to color die some flowers after I furrowed my stash of pretties.

So in about 40 minutes, it went from what you see above, to what you see below. Would have been faster, but I had to wait for the die to dry on the flowers! :)

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Created a birthday card for a very dear friend. I used a new digital kit by Paper Garden Projects called Me Myself and I.

I designed the layout of the card with the help of my Silhouette Cameo. The flower cluster from the kit was cut using the print and cut feature. I also used the color dropper to pick up the purple color from the flowers to used on the "Birthday Wishes" sentiment.

The pink paper from the kit was printed and cut to the card size. I used a Spellbinders border die to create the bracket edges and details.

I print and cut 2 of the flower clusters, inked up the edges and layered them to create some dimension. I added pearls for a little class and bling. Hoping this card brings warm cheer to my friend for her special day.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Remember that Log-in Organizer Notebook I made? Well, I had some papers left over from it. Papers that I had printed double sided from the digital kit She Believes by Etc by Danyale. So I decided to make some flowers with them. I used the cut file from Wendy Bird Designs called Pretty Petals Vol 3. Then I used my spritz and scrunch technique which you can find in my tutorial here to create the flowers. By cutting them at different sizes and mixing the different petal patterns, and changing up the centers, I was able to create unique looking flowers of varying sizes. Then came the question of what to do with the flowers?

I had this very plain lantern on my mantel. The flowers seemed the perfect way to dress it up! I added some trims, lace, ribbon and leaves. Now I've got a rather pretty lantern!

By the way - the candle inside it is one of those battery operated ones. Don't want to have real flames near these paper pretties!

Friday, January 23, 2015

Today is a special day for my son and his girlfriend. They have been dating for 1 year! They are both active people with lots of energy and very rooted in their faith. They have shared some wonderful times together and with family. They are the type of people that make you happy just to be with!

I did a bit of digital scrapping with photos from some of the things they have done over the past year. The digital kit that I used for this has the perfect bright happy colors. Especially the teal, that is her favorite color! The kit is called Life, Love, Etc by Etc by Danyale.

To create the 2 page layout, I used a template by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs. It's a FREEBIE that you can find here called Fuss Free Freebie 110.

I created the left side and flipped the template to create the right side of the page. Her's a look at the 2 sides individually:

Thursday, January 15, 2015

As our lives become more digital, the number of log-in ID's and passwords that we have keep growing. I've been on a trek to get things organized around the house so I decided it was time to finally organize the log-in's and passwords.

Using my crafty supplies, I created a notebook that I can keep track of all these gems. I used the digital kit She Believes by Etc by Danyale for the papers in this project.

I printed out the patterned paper for the cover on 12x12 paper. I also printed out solid color papers from the kit on 12x12 paper to be used to make the tabbed dividers in the notebook. These papers I printed on both sides, each side with a different solid paper from the digital kit.

The front and back cover pages are cut from a used up box of Bisquick, to give it stability. After cutting the box pieces, I ran them through the Xyron to apply adhesive, then adhered them to the printed patterned paper. I inked them and the blue accent piece, then adhered it to the covers.

Everything else was designed in Silhouette Studio. The shape I used is 5x7 Vertical Monthly Album by Carina Gardiner. Only I made 2 sets of the tabbed pages. I removed the numbers from the tab labels (circles) and used the text tool and print and cut feature to create ;labels foe each of the categories of passwords I wanted to organize.

I used another Silhouette shape for the label on the front cover. I filled each of the layers with different papers from the digital kit She Believes. Again using the text tool I typed out the notebook name and used the print and cut feature for this. I inked them, layered and adhered them to the cover.

The inside pages were also made in the Silhouette Studio using the print and cut feature. I decided to use book rings to bind it so that I can expand the notebook if needed by easily adding more inside pages or category tabbed pages.

Want to know something really cool? This coordinates so nicely with the desk organizer that I made using the digital kit Simple Things by Etc by Danyale!

UPDATE: I was asked to share the text portion ("site/URL/Username/Password) as a download file. Thanks for asking! You can grab it HERE. I saved it as a .png file so you can use it on any background paper that you would like.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Do you hybrid craft/scrapbook? To me hybrid crafting is combining digital and "real" to create something tangible. Not just creating it digitally and then printing it out. I love hybrid! You get the best of digital, you can play on the computer with design and layout. And then you get the best of "real crafting" in that you can use inks, paints, glue, buttons, string, etc, etc to finalize your project. And the best part....... since you started with digital stuff, you can recreate them, again, and again, as many times as your heart desires! You never run out of your favorite digital paper packs!!! What could be better than that?

Speaking of favorite paper packs, I may just have a brand new favorite! Life, Love, Etc kit by Etc by Danyale is amazing! The colors are vibrant, bright and fun! The best part to me? They lean themselves to either gender; guys or gals! And they have a more grown up feel. So they work great for pages about my boys! (who are actually young men now!).

I scrapped the page above using photos from a few years back with this new kit. It is a hybrid page. I designed it on the computer. Then I printed out the various papers and elements, cut them and assembled. Don't get me wrong, digital scrapping is wonderful. It's easy, clean and neat - there's nothing to clean up when you're done! But I love the dimension that you get with real scrapping.

I also love hybrid for card making. The idea of being able to re-use digital papers to recreate a beloved card design is so comforting. I'm thinking I might be remaking this card! Using the Life, Love, Etc kit again, I was able to create this bold and happy birthday card.

Here's a look at the dimensions of the layers on this card. Another fun thing about using digital papers for card making, you can resize the papers as needed to fit your design. Notice the patterned paper of that center star. It is the same as the background in the scrapbook page. On the scrapbook page that pattern is at full size. For the card I sized it down a bit to be more appealing and show more of the pattern.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Etc by Danyale released a New Year mini kit that has some super scrumptious papers, embellies and journal cards. I created a digital desktop to decorate my computer and a hybrid card using this cute kit.

Aren't those papers yummy? There's even more in the kit, check it out! I used a template by Wendy Bird Designs to create this card. You can find it in her Mixed Cards Vol. 1 set.

I popped the star using some foam glue dots. This gave the top layer of vellum a nice curve too. Here are a few views to show you the dimension the layers and texture give to the card.

I like to change up the desktop on my computer each month. The New Year mini kit was perfect for creating a January themed desktop.

April is Autism Awareness Month. Let's always raise awareness!

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